You’ve secured your dream internship for this coming summer and you’re feeling great! But now you’ve come to the next big hurdle: finding housing. Many students find themselves needing to relocate to a new city or location for a summer for the internship they have secured. The process of looking for affordable housing can be stressful, scary, and expensive, especially if it is an unfamiliar place or for an unpaid or low paying internship. The following tips and resources provided below should assist you in your search, and help you prepare for a summer full of incredible experiences!
Understand your budget. Before you dive in, it’s important to understand what you are able or willing to pay for housing. Consider these factors:
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- How much will you be paid?
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- What kind of transportation will you have? Do you need to pay for gas in your car? Will you need a public transportation pass?
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- Will you be eating out a lot? Cooking?
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- How do you want to experience your location? Will you be taking a lot of fun day trips on the weekends?
- Will you be visiting home or friends? Where and how might you be travelling?
Come up with some numbers (you may need to do a bit of research and math) and figure out how much you can afford to spend in each category, your ideals and your less ideals. How will some factors affect other factors? For example, living farther may mean higher transportation costs.
Set your priorities. Establish your priorities and the areas you are willing to compromise. It’s not always easy to find the perfect place, you will almost always need to make sacrifices. Things to consider are convenience, people, privacy, safety, comfort, culture, and cost. Here are some questions to get you started:
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- Would you settle for living on someone’s couch if it meant you could walk one block to get to work?
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- Are you okay with a 1-hour commute if that means you can live at home or with a friend?
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- Do you want a private apartment all to yourself, or are you okay sharing a bathroom and kitchen with 4 other strangers?
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- What would make you feel safe living in an area?
- Are you willing to put in more money to get what you want? Or are you willing to put up with almost anything for something cheap?
Start with your connections. Connections go a long way. Do you have relatives or family friends in the area? Do they even have friends in that area? Check in with your family, friends, and even your alumni network to see what is being offered within smaller circles. These tend to be more trustworthy, and maybe even less in demand. Making it known in your own circles that you’re looking for summer housing can be really helpful (Mom can ask all her mom friends if they know of anything!). Get in contact with the company you will be working at, they may have contacts or suggestions as well.
Buddy up. Living with other people can often lower living costs. Know what your own habits and expectations are: Do you sleep late? Do you want to host a lot of events at your place? Do you cook at home or eat out a lot? Need lots of closet space? Knowing yourself is important, and then you can search for a roommate. Facebook groups are a great place once again to find a roommate, especially if you’ve already found a place. Keep in mind that communicating where you are in your search process is important. Make sure the other person is aware of your price range and compromise points, or you may end up somewhere you really don’t want to, and the other person may not even know it!
Internet it. Still stumped for housing? The internet has a lot to offer. Here are a few housing options to check out:
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- Colleges and universities in the area often rent dorm living to students, even if they don’t attend that school. These can be safer and more economical and convenient options, but they also go very quickly!
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- Hostels are similar to dorms, and provide inexpensive food and lodging for specific groups of people such as students and interns. People usually stay in hostels for shorter periods of time, for reduced prices. They are worth checking out!
- There are so many Facebook groups dedicated solely to exchanging housing. There are some that exist for specific locations and cities, or just between students at Cornell for example.
Browse through some of the links below to get started with general and location-specific housing searches. There are a lot of resources on the internet, and you may very well find the perfect place! However, be cautious on the internet and do your proper research. Scammers know that college students are desperately looking for fast, affordable, convenient housing and know how to make their offers really attractive!
General Links:
Link to Airbnb
Link to Craigslist
Link to Sublet
Link to Zumper
Link to Trulia
Link to Hotpads
Link to HouseStay
Link to Zillow
Link to Homesuite
Link to Apartments.com
Link to Apartmentlist
Link to Hostels
Link to Hostelz
Link to RentLingo
New York City, NY
Link to New York University Summer Housing
Link to Fashion Institute of Technology Summer Housing
Link to The New School Summer Housing
Link to Columbia University Housing
Link to Educational Housing Services
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Link to 92Y
Link to NYC Intern
Link to Student Housing
Link to Home Stay
Link to International House NYC
Link to Webster Apartments
Washington DC
Link to Georgetown Law Summer Housing
Link to Georgetown University Summer Housing
Link to George Washington University Summer Housing
Link to George Mason University Housing
Link to Catholic University of America
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Link to International Student House
Link to Washington Intern Student Housing
Link to The Washington Intern Housing Network
Link to Cities Housing Solution
Link to Human Rights Campaign Article on Finding Housing
Link to The Washington Post Rentals
Chicago, IL
Link to University of Illinois at Chicago
Philadelphia, PA
Link to Drexel University Summer Housing
Boston, MA
Link to Boston University Summer Housing
Atlanta, GA
Link to Emory University
Link to Georgia Tech
Photo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/skyline-city-high-rises-houses-9470/